A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out today to support THINK micro’s first fundraising effort for the Grameen Koota school-building project!
Together, we managed to raise $404 for our cause, which is a great beginning and a testament to the strength that comes from working together. Stay tuned to this space for details of our next fundraising events in the upcoming month! Cheers! Tm.
THINK micro is pleased to announce the launch of its first micro fundraiser, an effort to raise $4500 to build an early childhood education centre in rural Karnataka India! You can find details about this fundraiser and the organisations that it supports by clicking on the link in the menu bar, above.
Our first fundraising event will be a bake sale, held on 22 May 2012 from 10 AM to 2 PM outside of the BUiLD exhibit in the UTS Tower Building. Come along to learn more about THINK micro, sample some delicious baked treats, and help out a great cause!
This week at THINK micro we got deep into the concept of social innovation, thanks to Priya’s brilliantly constructed micro-presentation and discussion. Some of the highlights include:
- Hearing the story of Sumitra, an EKO Financial customer talking about how access to banking positively changed her life (can you imagine an Australian saying that about Comm Bank, NAB et al??)
- Crowd funding/sourcing/creativity for social innovation… tapping into distributed knowledge, cloud labour and open innovation. Awesome stuff!
- Then Priya showed the group the amazing social innovation, Litre of Light. Developed by My Shelter Foundation, it shows how the community must be involved in social innovation. See the promo video:
Priya then drove a group discussion around social innovation… is it just a passing fad? The group proposed that it’s here to stay, though that important lessons had been learnt in the last few years including:
- Need to get local community involved (grass roots)
- Collaborative solution design and operation is powerful
- Transparency of where money comes/goes is key
- Should be easily accessible for everyone
Following this Matt F showcased the work of a university micro-finance club in Melbourne, Melbourne Microfinance Initiative. This is a well established group (more than a few years) who have projects in far-flung places like Laos, Kenya and Ghana. From his analysis we could draw out some learnings that could be applied to our own group including utilising a Board of Advisors and potentially running a creative micro enterprise competition in conjunction with MMI. Matt also proposed approaching MMI to discuss strategic partnership with THINK micro. See his slides here.
Lastly, Nathan and Baptiste discussed the upcoming workshop to develop new social business concepts… this Saturday 19th May 10am to 2pm. All welcome! More info at Facebook or this recent THINK micro blog post… RSVP to nathwiltshire at gmail.com
Yet another amazing week of THINK micro! Woo hoo!
We had a micro presentation by Nathan on social enterprise in China, drawing on his recent first hand experiences in Dalian in North Eastern China. This presentation was partially based on the article recently printed in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Here are some of the awesome impressions of Dalian..
Later, we saw this clip about Fair Finance, a microfinance lender that has had success setting up Bangladeshi concepts in finance for the British market.
Some of the discussion points included:
Would this work in Australia? Who would be the target markets? Who are the ‘marginalised’ people Fair Finance mention? Would these be different from the UK market?
What would be the barriers in this market? How would they be overcome?
How would you differentiate this type of lending in Australia from regular personal finance? How would you make it a social business rather than just another bank?
Needless to say hot debate raged well beyond our normal hour long session!
Today I’d like to highlight a fantastic social business concept, Khoombi. This innovative start-up organisation is the brainchild of THINK micro’s very own Hasan Syed and his team in Pakistan. Here’s a nice little clip to get you started…
Khoombi, is the Urdu word for mushrooms, a vegetable that is traditionally associated with Italy however with roots that run deep in Pakistan’s diverse agricultural history. Surprisingly, despite its versatility and high nutrition, the mushroom has disappeared from Pakistan’s agricultural markets in recent times.
Project Khoombi aims to revive mushroom farming in Pakistan through micro-level farming, to supply local business consumers with fresh mushrooms while exporting the surplus to international markets. Operating as a for-profit social enterprise, Khoombi aims to help farmers supplement their income during periods where crops are growing and they require funds to keep their households afloat. Khoombi facilitates this fantastic community-based farming by training locals on the best production methods.
The Khoombi business model is founded on revenue generated by purchasing and selling mushrooms from farmers, acting as a distributor for small producers. This program has been very successful during the first 2 years of operation. So much so, that Khoombi are looking to develop international farmers. To create a reliable demand source, secure the best prices for the mushrooms produced, and expand the reach of this brilliant work.
THINK micro will seek some of Khoombi’s personal success stories, to be published soon!
For more information:
This bi-weekly THINK micro meeting was jam-packed with free food, new members and some really interesting MICRO presentations. Thanks everyone for coming!
October 11th was the launch date for the first Dine It Forward and was very successful – a sold out event. There are subsequent events on the 25th and 30th of October, so buy some tickets if you want to come (good food, good entertainment)! All money raised goes to Palmera Projects’ Mannar Rice Mill Project (a social business/micro-finance project in a war-torn area of northwest Sri Lanka).
We also held a fundraiser for the Naandi Foundation, run parallel with the BUiLD awards dinner. It was a photography exhibition and a silent auction that was very successful, all the photos were sold!
Skateistan is an organisation well worth talking about, with an innovative approach to human development. After recently coming across the work of Ollie Perkovich and his team in Kabul, it is hard not to be extremely impressed. Operating within a war zone in a nation ravaged by 30 years of conflict, with deep social divisions thanks to ancient rivalries (exacerbated by years of equally destructive Taliban rule) throws up massive obstacles. Their story is one of believing in yourself and making the seemingly impossible come to fruition in order to make a difference in a troubled part of the world.
Skateistan is the world’s first co-educational skateboarding school, where students develop skills in skateboarding, skateboarding instruction, healthy habits, civic responsibility, information technology, the arts, and languages. Based in Kabul, participants are drawn from across Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, mostly urban and internally-displaced youth that would otherwise be excluded from education. Excluded from hope for a better future. Instead, Stakeistan provides these kids with new opportunities in cross-cultural interaction, education, and personal empowerment. For more information see Skateistan’s website
Recently, UTS hosted Ollie Perkovich for a session at the BUiLD !DEAS HUB, via Skype link from Kabul. Despite my fears of technological failure, the session ran smoothly, in part thanks to Skateistan’s internet connection at $30,000 (and we complain about the cost in Australia!). It was fantastic to hear the down to earth ethos created by Ollie, particularly his story of bootstrapping to get Skateistan off the ground. A great story of hard work and determination. The key ingredients in building any new organisation. Check out this clip…
Bootstrapping to get the idea off the ground is a story familiar to many start-up organisations. However, this coupled with the on-going difficulty in securing charitable funding in a world of a million priorities and needs, taught Ollie an extremely important lesson. In this environment the on-going viability of his project cannot be secured without changing the rules of the game. They need economic sustainability through cash flow self-determination. During the session, Ollie discussed their innovative approach, developing a social business model. This involves concocting initial revenue streams by leveraging skateboarding fashion and equipment to co-brand merchandise. Although this is just the start of a longer-term vision to reduce the organisation’s reliance on charitable donations, and there is much work to do, it is a massive step in the right direction. See Ollie’s ideas on building a self-sustaining revenue model and the importance of utilising social capital to achieve development goals in this clip…
In Ollie’s own words, having no background in human development or formal business school training, has in no way inhibited his successful approach to working towards solving this hugely complex issue. His innovative outlook has come purely from a practical approach to helping people in need, a massive dose of common sense and having the nous to avoid the pitfalls of traditional NGO frameworks. With this Ollie and Skateistan has achieved much success proving that anyone with these few fundamental qualities can make a difference. That is perhaps the most stirring aspect of this truly inspiring story.
Today I’d like to highlight the amazing work of Naandi Foundation. Through the Naandi Safe Drinking Water project, thousands of poor people that had been living for generations with the devastating health implications of drinking untreated ground water, now have on-going, affordable access to clean water. This is a massive problem throughout India and much of the Developing world.
Families who have been living in resignation with the risks of drinking and using contaminated water everyday, who gave Naandi insights that helped create the Community Safe Drinking Water System (CSWS) for bringing safe drinking water to villages.
The solution is incredibly simple, accessible and fundamentally sustainable.
All they [poor communities] wanted was a suitable technology, facilitation of its transfer to the villages, affordability of using the technology so that everyone could drink and use safe water equitably, and a guarantee that the technology will sustain.
The true innovation developed by Naandi is not in their ultra-low cost provision of safe drinking water, nor their enagement with the local community. It is their ability to develop partnerships across private business, international philanthropy, government and local villagers.
20 per cent of the capital cost for setting up a CSWS is raised by Naandi from the village either through contributions of an elected representative, or from personal contributions of villagers, or philanthropists (including NRIs), the rest is raised through an innovative long-term debt given by Indian commercial banks to WaterHealth International (the debt arrangement extended by the commercial banks is partly underwritten by the Gates Foundation through their grantee Acumen Fund, a US based charity). This is repaid through very affordable community user fees, which is collected as water purification cess on a daily basis.
However, to achieve this has required a lot of work to change villager’s long held perceptions on water use. To develop a social business model whereby villagers pay a small and affordable, yet crucial fee for safe drinking water. Naandi’s success in this shows how it can be done… how social business models can affect extended positive change in sustainable human development.
To lead the much required Behaviour Change in terms of – encouraging communities to drink safe water, accessing this water through payment of a nominal user fee, linking the consumption of this water through promoting healthier lifestyles, and encouraging the adoption of better sanitation and hygienic practices – is attempted through active community interface of the Safe Water Promoter, the field-based crusader from Naandi.
When the THINK micro team (through UTS BUiLD) visited Naandi in July 2011, the organisation was in the process of implementing this fee. By creating a self-sustaining revenue model Naandi can reduce their reliance on charitable funding, government grants and insulate themselves from changes in priorities from external parties. Furthermore, this revenue allows Naandi to reach more poor villages and extend their network.
For more information on Naandi and the Safe Drinking Water project…
Naandi website
Naani Safe Drinking Water project
Naandi safe water research paper
More info on social business
Yesterday’s THINK micro meeting was one for the true diehards thanks to uni holidays. Nevertheless, it was a hot-bed of awesome ideas, passionate discussions and collaboration!
We started off the group meeting with an activity headed off by Fiona, whereby we each introduced our partner by discussing their passion, knowledge and skill. We had people passionate about things as diverse as international humanitarian law, developmental economics and ballet; we had people knowledgeable about HR, physical computing and more; and we had people with a “general nerdery,” communications, compassion and other skill sets. It was an interesting excercise where we saw the diverse scope of our micro THINKers.
Listening intently to Martin's MICRO presentation [Sydney, Australia: September 2011
5 minute presentations on our members’ areas of expertise/interest
A Sri Lankan schoolgirl whose mother is an employee of the Trincomalee rice mill [Trincomalee, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka: July 2011
Whilst eating the lollies Fiona bought for us we got onto a discussion of fair work conditions and supply chain analysis. Fiona brought up an interesting application, Free2Work that helps track the supply chain, work conditions and overall “fairness ranking” of different products and brands. How interesting!
